Good initiative by business leaders

However, two points made by the prime minister when the business leaders met with her, to give vent to their very well-founded worries, have drawn our attention. First, she has reportedly stated that the bombings originated during the previous Awami League government's tenure and since that government had failed to investigate the incidents properly, bombings are still going on. We have to say that what is precisely at issue at this point in time is how the incumbent government has been handling the scourge of terrorism that has intensified over much of its tenure in clear-cut cause-and-effect sequences. The question is what has it done to resolve the cases of bomb attacks on 21 August 2004, Kibria assassination, the countrywide blasts on 17 August this year, the brutal killings of the two young judges, and the suicide bomb explosions in Chittagong and Gazipur?

Secondly, when the business leaders mentioned it to the prime minister citing press reports that a section of the government high-ups were encouraging or even patronising the militants, the PM questioned the very credibility of the newspaper reports. All this appears to have an echo of what some of the senior cabinet members, like, Moulana Nizami, for instance, have been saying about press reports.

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If this is her approach to the problem of militancy or how she feels about it, we would like to hope that this is not the case, then we are afraid, it might send across confusing signals about the prospects of a national dialogue.

Again, has the process of a national dialogue begun, as the PM has apparently hinted at, following her talks with the business leaders? Much as we appreciate the trade leaders' overture in having a meeting with her, an appropriate political dialogue on a national scale remains a far cry. Besides, the talks were held at the initiative of the trade bodies not that of the government. There is no point in approaching the dialogue issue in a perfunctory manner because tackling terrorism is too grave an agenda for that. In the ultimate analysis there is no gainsaying the fact that the PM has to take the leading role in making the dialogue happen with the opposition.